Gilbert spoke about how the Salt Lake City-based company cut 43 percent of the editorial staff at the newspaper, combining its reporters with those from its TV and radio stations, and sharpened its focus on the Internet, recruiting staffers with digital experience, according to NetNewsCheck, adding that he believes fewer than one out of every 10 traditional media outlets will survive.

Gilbert also claimed that the Web site for Deseret Media Cos.-owned TV station KSL is now the No. 1 Web site in Utah in terms of monthly traffic, with Deseret News coming in at No. 2, according to NetNewsCheck.

He said, as reported by NetNewsCheck:

What I find repeatedly is that the traditional medium overwhelms (when Web sites are run as arms of newspapers or TV stations), and that will always make sense … until you’re dead. Optimistic about the industry? No, not at all.

Speaking at the same event, Nexstar Broadcasting Group president and CEO Perry Sook said his company has seen 16 straight quarters of growth after embracing a strategy of creating Web communities rather than Web sites, adding, “The future of television is the best available screen,” NetNewsCheck reported.